Two-Phase Coolant Management for High-Density Server Heat Removal
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current air cooling solutions are inadequate for high power density systems, leading to increased server temperatures and reduced reliability in data centers, as they fail to efficiently manage the growing heat generated by high performance electronics.
Innovation Solution
A two-phase cooling system with a coolant management unit, including a server supply manifold, server return manifold, power distribution bus, and controller, which uses two-phase coolant to extract heat from servers, evaporate it into vapor, and condense it back into liquid form for efficient heat removal, while accommodating different rack architectures and configurations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If air cooling is used for server cooling, then the cooling system is simple and easy to implement, but it cannot efficiently manage high heat density systems and leads to increased server temperatures
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements two-phase immersion cooling where servers are submerged in a dielectric fluid that undergoes phase transition from liquid to vapor at the server surface, absorbing heat efficiently through latent heat of vaporization. The vapor then condenses back to liquid in a heat exchanger, creating a continuous cooling cycle that effectively manages high heat density systems while maintaining server reliability.
2Productivity
If high power density servers are deployed to increase productivity, then more computing power is available, but heat generation increases beyond the capacity of conventional air cooling
Solution Approach 1:
The two-phase cooling system utilizes phase transition of dielectric fluid to absorb and remove heat from high power density servers. The fluid evaporates at the server surface absorbing latent heat, then condenses in a heat exchanger, enabling efficient heat removal from high-density computing equipment that air cooling cannot handle.
3Reliability
If conventional cooling systems are used, then the system design is straightforward, but they reach limitations and cannot satisfy thermal management requirements for high power density systems
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs two-phase immersion cooling with dielectric fluid that undergoes phase transition to provide effective thermal management for high power density systems. While the system is more complex than air cooling, it achieves superior heat removal capability by utilizing evaporation and condensation cycles, enabling reliable operation of high-performance servers.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The two-phase cooling system effectively manages high power density servers, enhancing server reliability and performance by providing a modular, efficient, and adaptable thermal management solution that can handle varying cooling capacities and heat loads, suitable for both hyper-scale deployments and edge computing applications.
Implementation Method 1
uses two-phase coolant to extract heat from servers, evaporate it into vapor
Implementation Method 2
two-phase cooling system... uses two-phase coolant to extract heat from servers, evaporate it into vapor
Implementation Method 3
condense it back into liquid form for efficient heat removal
Data Source
AI summary
A coolant management unit includes a server supply manifold, a server return manifold, a power distribution, and a controller. A server supply manifold is to receive cooling fluid from a cooling fluid source. The server supply manifold is to distribute the cooling fluid to server blades. The server return manifold is to receive vapor from the one or more server blades. The cooling fluid is two-phase cooling fluid to extract heat from one or more servers and to evaporate into the vapor into the server return manifold, and the vapor is transmitted to an external condenser via the rack return manifold to be condensed back to a liquid form. A power distribution bus is configured to distribute power to the one or more servers. A controller is configured to control a fluid pump coupled to the server supply manifold based on one or more signals received from different sensors.